Penguins vs. Islanders Final Score: Pittsburgh Eliminates New York in OT
By Josh Hill
When the Pittsburgh Penguins drew the New York Islanders in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, nobody thought it was going to be a tight series. n one end you have a team that isn’t even the best one in the Tri-State area and the other was a powerhouse 1-seed set to make a run at a Cup. But while nobody gave them a chance, the Isles rolled up their sleeves and gave the Penguins all they could handle.
It just wasn’t enough.
We needed overtime to ultimately decide a winner in this one as the Isles jumped out to a 1-0 lead before the Pens came back and eventually tied the game at 3-3. It was back-and-forth all game long but the Islanders never trailed once before heading into overtime, there only problem was that they couldn’t suppress the Pens attack and close them out in regulation.
But while they couldn’t suppress the Pens attack, the Isles never backed down and never caved. When Jarome Iginla answered Hart Trophy finalist John Tavares’ goal in the first, the Isles fired right back with a beautifully executed Colin McDonald goal off the side of Tomas Vokoun’s net. It remained that way through overtime but the Pens eventually caught up to the fast pace nature in which the Isles were playing and got the puck into the net first.
But just because their season is over, don’t feel like New York is going anywhere.
The Isles have to be commended for this epic effort. Not a single person outside of New York gave them a chance to be in this series as much as they have been and even some Isles fans were admittedly skeptical heading into the series. But if we learned one thing from this series it’s that while no one gave them a shot coming into things, the Isles will exit this series one of the hot young teams to watch when the puck drops on their 2013-14 season.
As for the Pens, they got all they could handle from the Isles who just didn’t have enough to pull off the upset. The same may not be said about the Ottawa Senators, as if the Penguins had enough problems with New York, the Sens are going to give them even more and are a much bigger threat to the Pens now very vulnerable Stanley Cup dreams.